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Oct 2017 · 256
Noses
Ix Ryley Oct 2017
With a face like that, I could regret
Things that never happened,
Or things that happened quietly
Under our noses but above our throats
Apr 2016 · 361
Heat
Ix Ryley Apr 2016
I experience intensely and meekly.
Colors pour through my eyes,
Sloshing the recesses of my mind.
Air stirs, a feather licking bone.
Necks swell and throats wither
Beneath the advancing heat.
Jul 2015 · 967
Vibrant
Ix Ryley Jul 2015
If the world was so vibrant to others
And if people bursted with color,
I'm sure I'd feel less alone.
Jun 2015 · 2.3k
Tombstone
Ix Ryley Jun 2015
Do you plan to live life
Shackled to my tombstone
When I'm dead and gone?

A crack in your foundation
Demands a certain patience;
Your life can stumble on.
Jan 2015 · 888
Anybody's Angel
Ix Ryley Jan 2015
I would have been anybody's angel;
I didn't mind the love.
The halo in the shimmering lights as I spin, dances behind
As the wings, the feathered dreams, tower on the other side.
It's greener, you know.
It's greener and darker.
And here, staggering along the pit between goodness and liberty,
I have to ask, "What good am I, anyway?"
I'm no good on my own,
So I could be anybody's angel.
Nov 2014 · 390
Baby Faces
Ix Ryley Nov 2014
Our fading photograph,
Hand in hand, baby faces.
We were too young
To know what that meant.
Or was he?
That, and the "I love you".
I was too young
To think to say "not yet."

It might have been alright
If not for the sneers
And the names that followed.
I never told my family,
But he's been to court for it, now.
I didn't know then,
But I think I was the first.
Back then, I thought it only counted
If you were fighting.

Maybe it our naive mistake.
Maybe he was too young to know
That I was too tired to fight.

His shining eyes and his baby face
Gaze wearily, not forcefully
Back at me.
They can call me what they please.
I thought I was in love.
Then again, I was too young.
Sep 2014 · 438
As Morning Falls
Ix Ryley Sep 2014
In hours between Summer eves and Autumn dawns
Leaves blush between rubber and asphalt and time.

A speedometer shivers as fog finds the windshield
And covers the glass with frosty breath.

A fuel tank chokes on its fumes.
Inhaling.
Exhaling.
An engine shudders onward.

Silent roads stretch infinitely, shattered by stop signs
Which sigh at this car which lacks brakes.

I was hoping to make it 'til Christmas at least.
The sky's darkness dances, dizzy as it falls
While pinpricks of light close their eyes to rest.

This car, this road, these signs are old.
I've never felt so alive;

As crimson blue lights whirl in shivering mirrors
I only regret that I might have driven faster,
Sep 2014 · 471
Bully
Ix Ryley Sep 2014
I doubt you remember me.
I was the girl who sat alone,
Peering into empty faces.

I doubt you remember
Your laughing words which
Sent me crying from the room.

I doubt you remember my name
Or the names you called after me
As I walked away.

I doubt you noticed the empty chair
And if you did, I doubt you'd care.
I doubt I'll ever forget.
Jul 2014 · 1.2k
Ink
Ix Ryley Jul 2014
Ink
You're ink.
I'm the quill:
I lounge, idle and mute
For want of your color on my parchment.

Like ink you've spilled
Into my life
And like ink you'll stay
Forever stained, an unfading tattoo.
Jul 2014 · 290
Mind
Ix Ryley Jul 2014
The past is my ball and its chain I suppose.
It holds me, enfolds me, and sold me, and goes
Wherever I stray in my ghostly cold mind
And echoes; the yarn of my memories unwind.

I wake up to darkness inside my own head
To fight off the bitter sensation of dread.
I squint into fuzziness, hoping to find
The person who opens the cage of my mind.
Jul 2014 · 229
Untitled
Ix Ryley Jul 2014
You feel like rain
On a Summer night
And move my bones like wind
Jun 2014 · 955
Priorities
Ix Ryley Jun 2014
$8/hour

8 candy bars/2 outdoor recesses

2 friendship bracelets/4 diary entries

.5 graphic T-shirts/ 2 episodes on Netflix

4 energy drinks/ 25% of a night of sleep if you're lucky

2 shots of whiskey/ .4 graduation ceremonies

.027% of student loan/ Time best spent job hunting

1% of a month's rent/ Time still best spent job hunting

40% of a package of diapers/ A long drive

Time/ Money
Feb 2014 · 578
To Sail
Ix Ryley Feb 2014
How stereotypical can one person be?
Our hearts are like birds and its wings are the sea,
Relentless yet soft, as the sirens sing: "Free."
And salty yet sweet, ore the distance we'll heave

A sigh as a sign from our lips: "Nevermore."
If minds are our boats as our boats near the shore,
The ocean's grown sour, our sails are torn,
The wind-maker cries at the siren's song: "War"

Our intricate, gossamer sails we weave,
If heartbreak is rain and the sky starts to bleed,
Unravel and all that is left: You and Me
Will fly and will love without wings, but two feet.
Jan 2014 · 533
Rusted Pennies
Ix Ryley Jan 2014
What human experience could provide
Some wholesome satisfaction
In a thousand short years,
Let alone a hundred?

How fitting that we
Toss pennies, nickels, dimes
Into cobblestone wells, still
Hoping for a splash but expecting a clink,
Wishing for salvation from greed
And for some sort of purpose.

Even if I could
Stand in awe before each mountain
And sea, toiling with my tiny insignificance,
I would tremble still, begging for more time on this earth
To leave some tiny remnants of my years spent here,
Scared to death that in a century
I will be forgotten,
And the fruits of my labor
Will die with me, rotten.

It's amazing how we humans
Don't want to die.
But do we dare to live?

If I could only love every moment, bitter or sweet,
Savoring every last drop of coffee until it's
Dec 2013 · 566
Blind
Ix Ryley Dec 2013
These burdened eys
That saw the fire,
They see no more,
Now burnt and tired.

It lay in ruin,
My ashy waste,
This time, this life,
The fiery lace.

But look!
Charred wood shines in the light
And what a sad joke
To one without sight.
Dec 2013 · 674
These Hands
Ix Ryley Dec 2013
Whose hands are these? I think I know,
But feel them not, now as I go.
My mind's own words, my grace, my foe,
Fly from my lips and for control-

I cannot let them win.
What art, what chords can save me now,
Before my soul can flee
From treacherous conformity?
I know not whether I need a doctor or a poet,
A needle or a quill.
I need to break
This ugly iambic-

These robots marching hand in hand,
These red lights flashing o'er the land;

I think I'd rather die alone
Than dine with one of many drones.
Nov 2013 · 550
Time, Death, or Snow
Ix Ryley Nov 2013
When time passes by, only time can bestow
An icy cold breath known as death or as snow.
And quickly and quicker, the old clock will fly;
If just for a second, I'd slow it and sigh.
The world would stop spinning, and we would be free
From death and the burden that's following me.
If just for a moment, all time ceased to be,
Oh, Nothing would end, and the restless would sleep,
My weakness would freeze, lost in time on my face,
The fear in my heartbeat could no longer race,
I'd stop that tick-ticking and stop the decay,
The shaking and aching, the shrieks as we pay
Our debts to the time, to the time, death, and snow.
I'd slow my own pendulum life it bestows.
And, oh, the relief if belief became mindless;
If hope guides my heartbeat, then heaven is timeless-
Mar 2011 · 1.1k
Roots
Ix Ryley Mar 2011
The grey blots, they shiver across the white dawn
Mist cloaking the echoes of creaking birch trees
The cold silver smoke floats above the chilled pond
Which ripples, and placidly swims with the breeze

The grey ink, it spills and it wets the white sky
Now dripping the icy wet shivering beads.
The winds push away the cool fog, pinpricks fly
And cling to light cobwebs and shudd'ring green leaves

The black ink's soaked up by the grumbling high seas
The static and glass flicker down to the ground
The trees bend and flail in the whistling rip, seized
The pond is alive with wet ripples of sound

Black dawn crashes down as it rages with fire
Red flashes on darkness, they shriek and they scream
It wails like sirens, the birch trees so tired
Too bent, bruised, and broken to hold at the seams

I'd pick up and leave to go find that good home
Out there, somewhere near, it is golden and warm
Too heavy's my heart for the forest I've known
For those thrashing birches must suffer the storm
In sanctified soil, they've rooted and grown
They never could linger from where they were born

The sky's now torn open, the world is no more
But the trees, rooted firmly still wait out the storm.
Jan 2011 · 586
Summer
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
When Summer is gone and the crimson snow rains
And melts to the floor to end her life's pain
It gathers in waste, the whiteness of youth
Twas murdered last night. Twas murdered by you.

The children do lark; I watch with blurred eyes
They grow in rebellion, by secrets they hide
Soon they'll be like me: Changed for the worse
And no longer innocent, no longer worth it.

A blossom must wilt once it's cut and adored
The children are leaving, they're breaking down doors
We can't keep them safe, in the dark, and unknown
Who would've thought children had hearts of their own?

They won't listen now, won't learn from my faults
In them lays myself, can't take it much longer
I tried to protect them from ****** and love
Like me, they wouldn't hear it. Truth wasn't enough.

I look to the children, with blurry wet eyes
And watch as, in vain, they try and they try
To hold their dear children from falling as we
Did ****** our own youth, but now we are free.
And every last moment we wish to go back
To summer and youth and to things that we don't have.
Jan 2011 · 1.3k
I Win
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
Let's look back a bit.
You win, so I lose.
You won nothing
I lost everything.
Was victory true?
Because ... really,
I only lost things
Which aren't real.
You gained it all.
Are you ... glad?
You win, I lose
You. won. her.
Then. lost. her.
I lost you so I could
Gain something more.
Understand now?
In the end-
I win

But
Fear not.
I'm not one
To gloat.
This was incredibly impulsive...
Jan 2011 · 590
Can't Stop Night
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
Travel all around the Earth
Sacrificing more than worth
After years of suffering
The Earth is round, so home you'll be

No matter how much you want to see light
You cannot end the dark of light
At dawn, as glad as you are then
You cannot stop night from falling again
I was probably about 10 when I wrote this. All my poetry was depressing back then
Jan 2011 · 544
One of Many Fools
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
Carve the rock with pools of sand
For this new world you build alone
Steal away; You're hands are red.
You leave unknown.
So pick you're poison, go or stay
And let the memories fall away
The shell is gone, and going, wait
And look ahead, let's check your fate
Sand falls away, the clay is crumbling
Stone is cracking, light is dim,
The moon is red, hold on a little tighter
Or give in.
You're one of many fools
Who builds to break and lives to waste
Who wears a crown, self made, to rule
So hide your hands, and paint the jewels
Hail the wasteland! hail to hate!
You're one of many, many fools.
Hail the wasteland! Hail the cruel!
You're one of many, many fools.
Jan 2011 · 676
Dance
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
I dance in the moonlight
I dance in the rain
I dance in broad daylight
For loss or for gain
I dance when I'm guilty
I dance when I'm clean
I dance when I'm joyful
Seen or unseen
I dance when I'm singing
All my songs are true
They're songs about memories
When I danced with you
This is old, probably from when i was 11 or 12, but I found it and figured I may as well post it
Jan 2011 · 1.2k
Velvety Black
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
That velvety black rose from depths of cold ash,
Thirst quenched by the tears of the thundering red sky,
The crashes chase fiery hairlines, cold flashes,
From cold, thorny velvet, the wet petals fly--
Like the drenched rose could cry.

Whirlwinds whip, ash rose shrouded in black.
The blossom still fights through the rain, sharp as glass.
The glow of the sun’s what the thorny rose lacks,
But, at dawn’s dim grey glow, withered rose is cold ash--
Ash, like the others before it.

A rose, as it grows, is a rose, still, at death
Through wind and the rain, and the frost's icey breath
For a rose and its seed and the ash when it's gone
Will wither and die in the time before dawn.
What's ash can't come back.
It's gone.
Jan 2011 · 615
Lovely Change
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
Tomorrow snow will cool the brightest light,
It’s trickled, liquid fire, by each touch
The sun bestows within dark fields that might
Become a living hollow, warm and blushed

The moment snow fell down from winter’s gale,
The blossoms freeze in time beneath the frost,
The blush turns blue beneath the icy veil,
And sheets of crystals gather as it’s lost

What withers, petal’s bones would turn to ash,
Would die beneath the sun that blessed its birth,
But stays forever frozen, living glass,
Eternal moments taken for no worth

Its petals glist’ning, silver as cold rain,
Its frozen time awaits more lovely change.
This is the first sonnet I've tried to write... Please critique
Jan 2011 · 682
READ BETWEEN THE LINES
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
Ready my frosted grave for the darkness to wash away
Every flurry of white light lending hope
And drown out even the shadows dappling the snow; it’s
Devouring all that it is not, changing it, it’s

Beckoning, so cold, so cold, it’s
Emanating crystal clearness, it grows in my uplifted deceased heart, it’s
Targeting my soul and planting its seeds of dark resentment,
Wielding the pure cool truths of what life was really for,
Each thorny rose twine showing me that life was for nothing,
Each instant, opening my misty eyes wider, it’s
Now frosting over my loss of blissful ignorance, it’s

Touching me with the clear music I rise and dance with
Harmonious ghosts are moaning as they drift,
Eliminating the pain with their songs, I’m not

Like I wish I could be, I’m in brooding black waste, rising from the grave in vain,
In quiet sorrow or yearning, I’m as light as the white snow, drifting away
Nothing but the snow matters anymore as I close my cold eyes but cannot rest,
Every light I’ve seen and loved is forever
Silenced.
Jan 2011 · 692
The Garden
Ix Ryley Jan 2011
When I was young I had a little garden that I grew,
A green thumbed girl, I’d dream my days away there as I flew
From each adventure I could dream, I swear, there’s always more,
I’d lean against my oak tree in my garden’s quiet lure.
When I grew a bit bigger sometimes I’d leave to explore
The bigger world that stood beyond the garden’s leafy door.
While I was gone, to my sincere surprise, I met a friend.
I brought him to my garden where we’d both dream and pretend.
We grew beside the garden which, together, we would tend
Our bond grew strong as oak; we knew that this would never end,
We’d duel and talk and draw our little pictures in the loam,
We even made a swing from the old oak tree, then a home.
Our small stick hut was big enough for both of us to fit
Until we grew too big to hide inside a fort of sticks
We built a real tree house in the oak branches above
But no more could be desired the day that we fell in love.
Each day was a new dream, and every kiss a new adventure,
We kept the garden blooming, and we always worked together,
When winter came, each year, we’d spark a fire til we learned
One day, the little fire caught, and the whole garden burned
Down to the ground, we only had each other, snow, and ash,
In tears, we left our burnt home, and for years we didn’t come back,
One Spring, we brought our children there and to our surprise,
The garden grew with green again, we saw with brand new eyes.
My friend and I, our kids close by, have tended and restored
The garden and our children grow; we built a cabin for
Us all to live and learn and grow like flowers; now we’ve seen
When life and love’s this wonderful, the world is like our dream:
It’s everything and anything we wanted it to be.

— The End —